As an active (perhaps excessive) user of the Internet, especially for organizing and activism purposes, I am amazed at how some of the basic rules for ‘activist’ websites are routinely ignored. When I refresh my links and bookmarks it is disappointing to see that many of these ‘activist’ websites are inactive and largely ignored and/or forgotten.
For more than a decade there has been one single constant in all the actions’ sites and websites I’ve helped administer and/or written action alerts and site content. There is such an allure to make things pretty and have stuff, and stuff everywhere. They are either being ignored completely or drowning out the purpose of the visit & how they can participate in your actions.
Guess what?
Keep It Simple Stupid!(was tempted to add several more exclamation marks to denote the level of frustration)
It doesn’t mean you can’t have a rocking website that attracts visitors (unique and loyal) but your online actions can have a higher participation rate and higher potential for impact. And this is a key element for successful online organizing and collective action, having others to help spread the word.
Which, if you’re following me, working backwards means the purpose for a website (or MySpace or FaceBook etc) has to be clear, especially for non-party and party political organisations. This kind of limitation and constraints are not applicable to individual online activists.
Don’t get me wrong, you would quiet rightly point out that I have a myspace and facebook account and links to other blog hosting services etc. Sure but even look at my own personal blog. I’ve purposely decided to…yep you guessed it…KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID.
It is possible to have an interesting, engaging and active action site or organisation website without crowding out the important stuff with the unimportant stuff. And that goes for email action alerts as well.
My feed picks up quiet a few action alerts posted to bulletin boards, online discussion forums, and through an organisation’s website or campaign page. They are all way too long covering too many issues. It’s disappointing because in general the issues are all important and it’d be very difficult to decide which issue or campaign is more important than another.
Likewise production of content (articles, videos, podcasts) that works for the Internet must become a priority for Australia’s non-party political campaigning organisations. There is an audience looking for your stuff!
ORGANISATION? INDY ONLINE ACTIVIST? K.I.S.S.
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As found on
Alex’s Choice News- NZ Research Claims Switching Banks ‘Not Difficult’ December 8, 2009Money. Credit: Martin Kingsley/ flickr By Rich Bowden: Research conducted in New Zealand has exploded customers' preconceptions that switching banks is a difficult and expensive procedure. Dr Claire Matthews, who researched the subject for her Doctor of Philosophy in Banking Studies at Massey University's Centre for Banking Studies, questioned near […]
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Alex Schlotzer by Alex Schlotzer is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 Australia License.
Based on a work at alexschlotzer.wordpress.com.
July 27, 2008 at 3:46 am
I’d also like to point out, and perhaps make absolutely clear, action alerts and newsletters are not the same thing.
Action alerts should never ever be about more than one issue; and they are used sparingly and at important intervals through a campaign.
Newsletters should never be more than about 5 things covering the really important stuff at the top and the least important staff at the bottom. Keep newsletter items as summaries only and always link to more information on your website.